By Jared Woodfill
Editor-in-ChiefCRTXNews.com, President
Conservative Republicans of Texas

During the past legislative session and into the final hours of the first special session, the conservative agenda, as promoted by Governor Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Patrick, Republicans in the state Senate, the Freedom Caucus in the state House, and the Republican Party of Texas Platform, has been halted by the obstructionist tactics of liberal Republican Texas House Speaker Joe Straus and his lieutenants. Shockingly, one man, from one small house district (1 out of 150), has been able to kill the will of conservative Texans who have given the majority mantle to Republicans.

The GOP caucus will meet Thursday morning in Austin to set the procedures for selecting a new speaker. The Republican Party of Texas platform, a document created by grass-roots activist across the state of Texas, clearly identifies how Republican legislators should select its speaker. The meeting isn’t happening because the caucus chairman, Tan Parker of Flower Mound, finally decided to follow his party’s platform. Instead, thanks to the bold leadership of members of the Freedom Caucus in the Texas House, a meeting of the caucus has been forced under the caucus rules. Specifically, it took 14 conservative lawmaker to set this meeting.

We will now see how many Republican House members will attend the caucus meeting and address the rule for choosing the next speaker of the Texas House. We will identify every member who attends and those who choose to run and hide from their responsibilities by refusing to attend. According to the Republican Caucus Rules, at least 49 Republicans must be present for the caucus to adopt procedures regarding the selection of a speaker. Remember, we currently have 95 Republicans in the Texas State House

If you live in a district where you are represented by a Republican, call your districts represented at their Capitol office (the switchboard is 512-463-4630) and ask them whether they will attend the Republican caucus on Thursday and vote to implement the party platform where Republicans, not Democrats, chose the speaker of the Texas House.

It is time for us to hold our Texas House members accountable. It is time to fight the good fight!